Many of us have been untreated fairly in life and looked to get revenge. For instance, you may have visioned your "perfect last day" at work where you score revenge for everyone who mistreated you. Few of us have taken action like this man, who gave his entire town the middle finger. Even better, he spent $4,000 on it.
A man in Westford, Vermont did just that. In 2008, Ted Pelkey was hoping to build a 8,000 sq. ft. garage so he could move his truck repair and recycling business to his own property, instead of commuting to nearby Swanton. The Westford Selectboard and Development Review Board blocked his application for a permit. For the past decade he has been told no, over and over.
His response?
It's not clear why he kept getting denied by authorities, but Ted decided enough is enough. He created a giant middle finger statue. It was made out of a 700 pound of block pine. It's on top of a 16 foot pole and cost $4,000 to create. To top things off, he put two floodlights on it so everyone can see it all day and all night.
“I’ve been put through the wringer by these people, and it’s just not right,” Pekley said to Boston.com. “I haven’t been treated fairly at all.”
What's even better is the sign isn't going anywhere.
Pelkey says he originally expected that he would be forced to take it down.
Vermont is one of the few states in the country with a ban on billboards, otherwise defined as “off-premise advertising signs.” And while Pelkey is clearly advertising his fury with local officials, his giant middle finger sculpture isn’t technically a sign for his business, according to the Vermont Agency of Transportation.
“Although the structure is visible from a state highway, it is outside of the State Right of Way and not within our jurisdiction,” Jacqui DeMen, a spokeswoman for the agency, told Boston.com in an email. “The structure does not meet the statutory definition of ‘sign’ and thus can’t be regulated under the Vermont Billboard Law.”
With all of the hard work he put into it, it would be a shame for it to just be taken down.
